by Matt J. Pike
As we headed closer to Wellington Sq, there was a noticeable difference in the damage compared with the city. Maybe it was my optimism for a successful trip at the time, but I felt it had a better comparison to the suburbs just east of the parklands – the ones between Norwood and the city. It’s hard to quantify that with anything in particular, but when you spend enough time hovering through various levels of damage, you build up a bit of a picture of what’s normal and not. This was definitely different than the city – particularly the semi-urban areas out by South Tce, which would compare closest.
It wasn’t long before we reached Wellington Sq. More than half the buildings surrounding it were still standing at some significant level or another – again, good signs. We figured this was as good a spot as any to begin our search.
Also, as far as the three of us knew, no one had ventured to this part of North Adelaide since we somewhat claimed it as our turf. There certainly wasn’t any sign of activity in the ash. And really, until now, there was no need. North Adelaide had some great swiping spots along O’Connell St and Melbourne St, but this part of the suburb was purely residential.
Finding a car in a sea of ash under the tsunami line was as close to a needle in a haystack moment as you were likely to find. I mean, you can somewhat pick where they’re likely to be above the line – they’re on the street side where they were left all those months ago. You’d just head for where the ash is piled highest, or formed into a mogul, dig, and there’s a fair chance you’d hit paydirt. Here though, and even with the potentially more moderate tsunami conditions that had rolled through compared to elsewhere, well, cars move. In a battle between handbreak and tsunami... tsunami tends to win.
I sound wise now, but this afternoon I was following the old rules. Approximate where roadside would be, see a bump in the ash – dig. It took four failed attempts for us to decide we needed a new strategy.
That involved us looking at the landscape afresh. We tried to imagine how the waters could’ve flowed through in those moments – pushing inland in waves, pressing into buildings, finding relief and flow through the streets, then back out to sea in a wash. Maybe there was some back and forwards in between – and trying to guess where all of that may or may not have dumped at least one car. Truth be told, we sat around not saying anything for a couple of minutes, looking (if anyone was watching) like idiots.
I think we each felt our half-baked ideas were going to seem silly to the others and didn’t suggest them. Anyway, after a long, awkward, incompetent pause, Kelly suggested around the base of the trees that still stood in the square.
For lack of any other ideas, we started there. And while it was another fail, it got us talking more seriously (or desperately) about what may have really happened. Cars don’t just disappear, after all – it’s not that sort of apocalypse. After bouncing back and forth a few ideas, we targeted our next two spots as the side of the buildings lining the square on the east and west.
We started on the east side by the remains of what looked like a pub. It was one of those classic old looking two-storey hotels. You could still see where the verandah was ripped away, just under the main ash line, but the pile had bunched up from the first story balcony all the way to the roof. In fact, it was only right near the top of the building that you could see some of the original stone work.
It was an exciting and depressing sight. Clearly there was tons of debris below that we assumed had gathered as the tsunami waters did their thing, which was what we were now looking for, but it also meant we would be doing some dirty and heavy lifting.
Ye-jun pointed out it was the Wellington Hotel (not entirely surprising, given we were on Wellington Sq) and he was pretty sure there was street parking out the front back in pre-rock days. It gave us a little added encouragement we might be on to a winner.
So we climbed the pile of rubble to get a better feel for what we were dealing with. It was essentially a giant ash ramp. It felt stable enough under foot, which was important. Then it was down to business. We climbed down to where the ash ramp started above the general ash level of the area, just below the verandah remains. Then we began to dig.
I’ve had my fair share of hard yakka post-rock, but this was up there with the best (worst) of it. For a start, the amount of debris we needed to shift was massive – MASSIVE. And we couldn’t simply just shovel the ash or debris to the side of our dig area, that would soon become another large pile and a problem in itself. We needed the discarded ash a distance away from the dig activities. So, for each exhausting bucketload we cleared, we had to transport it to a spot about 10m away, in the square. Also, all that digging kicked up more of the ash around us. It wasn’t long before the area around us resembled the early days post rock – the air was thick with it. That also added to the exhaustion, because no matter how much you had your face and nose covered, that stuff just gets in anywhere and everywhere. We were all coughing, sweating and exhausted within minutes.
And we were only just getting started.
We figured the ash line was probably about half a metre above where any potential car roof tops would have been and probably that far further down again for bonnets and boots. So we started with a series of exploratory holes as close as we could to the ash ramp. We’d dig down about a metre, which again doesn’t seem like much writing it down, but when you’re out there living it, it’s a world of hurt. You pretty much had to dig the edge of the hole at a 45-degree angle, otherwise the ash just fell back into where you were digging. It wasn’t all smooth ash, either. The top layer broke away fairly easily, but once you got into the thick of it, you hit all sorts of random debris, which added another level of pain. And it could be anything; in one hole I hit a metal chair, which meant another 10 minutes of digging just to work around its shape and pull it out of the surrounding ash.
After 90 minutes we had a well-earned break and food/drink refuel. At that point we had six holes and no luck. That was depressing. We’d been out for more than three hours at that point and hadn’t even seen a car – not one! We debated whether it was worth moving locations but in the end we decided to stay. The hotel just seemed worth another crack, given the thinking that led us there in the first place. Besides, the situation across the square – our other potential dig site on the west side – looked as if it would present the same problems we were facing. So, we figured we may as well finish up our day there at the very least.
In the back of our minds, we also knew the area with the most potential was under the huge ash ramp. There was a chance we were just a few feet away from hitting the real paydirt, but would never find out, because it wasn’t worth spending a day or two digging out that ramp for nothing.
After the break we jumped back into it. It was a good 15 minutes of renewed enthusiasm, followed by another dreary slog of coughing and ash and hard work. The somewhat sun was starting to fade, along with our hope, when Kelly struck gold.
Well, gold was the grille of an SUV, but it was gold for us.
She got a metallic thud on the end of her shovel, followed by another on her next swing. At that point she called us over. Now, there’s a vocal pitch people reach when they’ve found something curious or interesting or noteworthy... then there’s the pitch people find when they think they’ve found something amazing. It was that pitch.
Ye-jun and I were over in a second.
Before us lay a tiny glimpse of shovel-dented bonnet and a hint of front headlight from vehicle model unknown. As soon as we had confirmation – which didn’t take long – we went into a brief moment of hysteria. Celebrations and laughs ensued. This was a hard-earned moment. The cheer didn’t last long though. As soon as the gravity and the task ahead sunk in, it was back down to business.
At that moment, we became palaeontologists. The tone got serious. We weren’t celebrating a discovery, we had just unearthed the first bones of what could be the most amazing dinosaur find of our collective careers. And the mission wasn’t about shovels and hard yakka, it was a
bout a delicate removal operation.
We all started shooting out theories as to how best to clear the ash from our SUV skeleton. Because this moment was huge and we couldn’t proceed without a plan.
But it didn’t matter how much planning we did, the light was our biggest enemy. We were exhausted and, although the find shot us with adrenaline, we all knew nothing we did on this evening would be better or of higher quality than if we downed tools and came back with fresh minds, bodies and light in the morning. So, that’s what we did.
***
January 25, 2015
My body’s exhausted from yesterday and I have a feeling that was only an entree as to what I’ll face at the end of the day. Still, the enthusiasm in the group is right up about our car discovery. Jonesy is coming down to help out on operation: excavate vehicle. A couple of this morning’s lookout crew will also head our way after their shift.
But it’s exciting. We can smell another game-changer close and levelling up our community is always a great moment.
I’ve had a big breakfast and loaded up Phoenix with some extra equipment that we really could have used yesterday – a wheelbarrow, crowbar, pick and a few extra buckets. With the extra hands on deck and the additional equipment, we’ll definitely speed up the process. We’ll need to, because the car itself is covered by the ash ramp, so we’ll be digging under it from ground level and removing the ramp from above. That’s a lot of ash to shift.
This will be the best workout I’ve had in months. I will definitely have guns by this afternoon.
*
So, after seeing the site again in the more favourable lighting conditions this morning, we came up with our plan of attack. Step one was to dig down to tyre level around the part of the car we’d already exposed. That took well over an hour, digging in shifts. But we had created a ground level trench as an access point to the entire site. We also fashioned a ramp at the end of the trench to allow us to run the wheelbarrow to and from ash level so we could dispose of the excess ash back into Wellington Sq.
We had two people digging, one on wheelbarrow duty and the fourth resting and/or helping the diggers with snags and impediments as required. It gave us each a good rest between the digging.
Once the trench was established and we had a corner of the car poking its grill into fresh air for the first time in months, we started to attack the ash ramp. This was a lot easier than digging the trench, but also far more dangerous. We’d just set the wheelbarrow by the lip of the trench, hop up onto the ash ramp and loosen the ash and debris enough so that gravity would feed it into the wheelbarrow.
The problem was, sometimes the ash would come out in neat parts, but other times it would get caught by large pieces of debris. Even worse were the times we pushed it one step too far and created a mini avalanche in the ash.
One of those was quite nasty. Ye-jun was working the ramp and he shovelled into the wrong piece of ash at the wrong time. The face of the ramp just gave way from that point down – a good 30cm deep all the way across the ramp. The wheelbarrow was drowned in ash and Jonesy and Kelly had to jump for their lives. The whole scene was then completely obscured by the ensuing dust cloud.
Everyone was yelling to make sure we were all OK. Ye-jun was stuck on the ramp above where the avalanche had started – the last place you’d want to be. I started yelling at him to get out of there as carefully as he could – he kept saying, “I know, I know.”
Of course, we couldn’t see him at that point, in fact, I could barely see Jonesy and Kelly, who were only a metre or so away from me. But we all knew somewhere above us was Ye-jun and right above him was the now very unstable ash above the avalanche start point.
Before we knew it, there was another rumbling, a lot of swearing, then a second shower of ash and debris on those in the trench and me by its side. Once the noise and movement settled, we could hear Ye-jun moaning close by. Long story short, severely winded, a few bumps and bruises, but very lucky to walk away without more serious injury.
Sometimes you don’t fully appreciate the risks you’re taking until something like that happens. I mean, this is not pre-rock, this is a different world. We don’t have any proper medical skills, so anything beyond a simple fracture could be a death sentence. And it can happen so quickly.
It took about 10 minutes for us to collect ourselves. We gathered at the top of the trench and took a drinks break while the dust literally settled. What do we see when we do? Another car! We couldn’t believe it – poking out of the ramp were the back bumper and underside of some sort of sedan. That was a well-earned hi-five moment.
It took more than an hour to clean the trench out and get back to where we had been. Although, it had fast forwarded a lot of the digging. It was only then that we truly realised the scale of the task ahead. Car two, judging by the angle of the part we could see, was sitting somewhat over car one, meaning we’d have to totally remove the entire ramp of ash leaning against the hotel to free car two to have any hope of removing car one.
We decided to break for lunch and wait for the extra numbers to arrive. Jonesy called into base to have them bring out another wheelbarrow with them.
Meanwhile we came up with a new strategy to tackle the ash ramp removal that was, hopefully, safer.
By the time help arrived, we had our new system ready to go. We figured it was far better to create and control the ash avalanches ourselves, than continue digging as we had been. So, we’d undermine the lower part of the ramp ash by digging into it to a depth of 30cm or so, then we’d climb to the side of the ramp’s main dig area and prod holes above where we’d dug. Sooner or later it’d come crashing down. Once that happened, we’d climb into the trench and shift all the ash out to the square.
That system worked to a certain point, but then car two became a factor. We could cause the avalanches below where it poked out, but above that we had to revert to digging by shovel again. But we tried to keep each element of the dig about the same depth to keep the area as stable as possible.
By mid-afternoon we had made a big dent in the work. Car two was cleared right down to the front wheels. We left the ash underneath it (on the roof, being upside down), so as to keep it as steady as possible. Meanwhile we worked on digging in and around the sides.
That’s when we discovered cars three and four – another SUV and another sedan. Car two must have flipped over the top of them while tsunami surfing and the three cars just got pushed into the hotel’s front wall and stayed there.
More good news from Jonesy, too – apart from a little (lot of) panel beating, car two looked in reasonable shape, considering. Two of the tyres had blown, most of the windows were smashed and ash had gotten all through the cabin, but, structurally, he’s pretty positive it’s a salvageable situation.
Car two was also our reason to call it a day, well earlier than we did the day before. We had reached the point where we could no longer dig around it and down without creating a risky situation. So the whole dig had to stop until car two was freed. And to free car two would require some rope and rigging equipment we didn’t have with us.
So, we downed tools and gave ourselves a well-earned early minute.
*
The other cars were such a significant find we’ve had to change strategy on a few things. Firstly, the dig is going to take way longer than we thought. Sure we nailed a lot of the riskier jobs today, but getting car two out is going to be a challenge on its own and who knows how long that will take tomorrow. Then we still have another three cars to dig out, maybe more.
At least we can set our minds to the length of the task at hand. It’s easy to see something and get excited, expecting instant results, but going into a day’s dig with a realistic target is not a bad thing either.
Secondly, we’re going to be borrowing some of the front end loader’s time over the next three days. We won’t be getting the cars back at all if we have no road to roll them across. Jeffcott St is yet to be cleared, like most of North Adelaide. There
’s about 500m worth of road to clear, so we reckon using part of its time over three days can get that done. And strategically, this is a good time to act. I mean, whatever happened out east during the past few days, whoever the winners and the losers, it would’ve taken a toll all around. We’ve been there. Nobody recovering from that is planning an imminent attack elsewhere right now. They’re all licking their wounds.
It feels weird talking about that after being happy with the single focus of our attention being defences and building the wall, but this is game-changer work. Should we get a functioning car out of this... or more... our productivity will go through the roof.
So, we have a timeframe, we know the bounty on offer and we have a plan to get it done. All that lies between now and then is some hard, messy, sweaty, risky work.
I need sleep.
***
January 26, 2015
If our guestimation of the date is correct, it’s Australia Day! I don’t know how to acknowledge this moment, really.
While I never could have imagined I’d be in this spot a year ago, I’m alive. And while today will be less about barbecues and family, and more about excavation and staying alive, I guess it’s a nice milestone.
It’s funny, Adelaide Oval is usually the site of an international cricket match on this day. In a different version of time, where a comet didn’t plough into our world several months ago, there’d be 50,000 people pouring into the stands that are our home to watch two teams of 11 brightly dressed men bowl, hit, throw and catch a ball for several hours. Today, a crowd of zero will watch less than 11 people dig and swear around a pile of ash. Mostly swear.
